What happens to the Pacers is they do exactly what they were going to have to do regardless - restock, improve, and learn to play as a team again, which is what failed them so much last season. Roy Hibbert is in a contract year so there's going to be pressure on him to play well, and now there's even more than there was before. David West is up there in years and needs to show that he can be the veteran leader. George Hill is going to have to take the ball up the floor on his own now without PG or Lance to play point-forward for him. He's going to have to become a real PG. The bench is going to have to play well against other starters, which is what Larry Bird tried to design. As a whole, they can only make these individual things happen if they play well together, and hopefully Frank Vogel will make a point of that.

Frankly, with LeBron back in the division, Kevin Love likely coming to the division, and Derrick Rose back in full form, the Pacers had no shot this year anyway, especially without Lance, and this only means the players left will have to make it on their own. The bigger question is whether PG will fit back in seamlessly when he returns or pull a D-Rose and take two or three (we'll see) years to make it back to form.

As for FIBA, the United States doesn't need nearly as much star power as it has to win right now, and if some of the big names drop out after this, they'll still be the favorites. In the scrimmage those guys were competing to be on a team, and they were going all out - that's why PG got hurt - so maybe there will be less of that kind of play and it'll become more like the midseason all star game (I hope not, I can't even watch that game anymore), but maybe they'll still play competitively against each other to make the squad for pride. Impossible to say right now.

(And maybe they'll move the basket stanchion back.)